Joshua Smith has been an active member of the Liberty Movement since 2008, contributing to Dankertarians and later cofounding the libertarian publication Think Liberty whose stated goal is to “[promote] individualism, peace, and freedom.” He is also endorsed by the Libertarian Mises Caucus in his run for the chair of the Libertarian Party.

Smith currently serves the Libertarian Party as an at-large member of the Libertarian National Committee.

After the 9/11 attacks, Joshua Smith joined the Navy where he saw “a lot of wasteful spending and loss of lives.” After hearing Ron Paul speak sometime after 2005, he realized that libertarian views matched what he was thinking during this period and decided to campaign for Paul’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012.

He briefly joined the Libertarian Party in 2010, but discontinued donating to do his own activism. In 2016, he moved to Washington and became a member of the Party again, where he became region rep at his first state convention.

Platform: taken from his 2016 run for LP Chair

“Enable local leaders: County and state chairs should have all the resources necessary to grow the party effectively. Infrastructure should be arranged in a way that allows us to put these leaders through educational systems to gain the tools they need to properly lead and grow their local affiliates and state parties in a principled fashion. Those in leadership should be passing on educational information about how to create successful digital and social marketing campaigns, and hold successful events. We must offer more support to state and local candidates. We have more Libertarian candidates running nationwide than ever before, and there have been several that could have been more successful with a little more promotion from the LNC.

Clean up the party: We need to reaffirm our principles as a party and let all who refuse to accept them know that in this time of growth, they have no place at the table. This is short and sweet, and while it shouldn’t be something we have to debate, we have come to a point where it needs to be yelled from the rooftops. Violent collectivists wishing to twist our platforms to fit their agendas are not welcome

Focus on retention and amplification of donations and memberships: When I became a member of the Libertarian Party, it took me five months to get my card, and it took me weeks to finally find the person I needed to speak with to become involved with my local affiliate. This will be a thing of the past. Every new member will receive an onboarding kit full of materials for education on outreach, including brochures they can give to others who are interested in learning more about our ideas. We need to be inspiring and enabling new members of the party with the contacts, and tools they need to move forward in their fight for liberty. We can’t expect new members to be enthusiastic about spreading the ideals of liberty if we don’t act as though we’re happy to have them.

Effective and efficient marketing: We need marketing campaigns and outreach that 1. Members of the party don’t quit the party over and 2. Help build the party. What National does right should be getting passed on to state and county entities as well. We will grow and improve together through our sharing of methods and strategies. If there is a county affiliate struggling with outreach, there should be information and channels of support quickly available for these individuals to help them solve the problems they face.”